Week 9: 3/15-3/17
Monday, 3/15:
Takeaways from France and Algeria:
- difficulty mastering the memory of colonialism
- divergent memories of the war in Algeria and France, Algerian diaspora, pieds-noirs, harkis, beurs, immigrants in France
- currents of decolonization and its modern implications
- French memories are politicized
- Some recovery of memory with Days of Glory (2006).
- difficult memories? France has a few that layer on top of each other; Vichy France and the Holocaust, colonization, the French Algerian War, the Indochina War.
Introduction to spanish History and Memory
- Fighting occurred from 1936-1939
- victory of Franco and the Fascists, Franco would rule for the next 30 years
- “pact of forgetting” from the 1970s onward- refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Civil War or Franco
- 1977 Amnesty Law prevented crimes from being investigated
- 2004-onward: Spanish “memory boom”: Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, governmental action to investigate the memory of Francoism, takedowns of Francoist memorials, streets, buildings.
- 2006 Historical Memory Law
Discussion of Faber:
- victim-centered memory of the Spanish Civil War
- a nuanced analysis of the differences between history and memory- no historian is entirely subjective.
- two parties with irreconcilable memories: memory depends on political ideology, geographic area, age.
- the right: “don’t open up old wounds”, the left: “recover historical memory”
- what are the problems with these two tropes? things can get politicized and history can be overshadowed.
- what are the limitations of the idea of victimhood? what are the benefits of the idea of victimhood?
- an ethical memory should not only be about the victims, but about the inhumanity within us.
- was the Spanish transition an ideal transition to democracy? in the last 20 years, historians have been far more critical of this period.
- is it best to reopen these wounds, is restorative justice possible?
Questions to consider with Faber:
How has the memory of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War evolved over time?
Faber claims that the “pastness” of Francosim has not yet occurred to the Spanish people. Based on what we have read, would you say this is so?
How has historical memory been expressed in academia, politics, and in popular culture?
What place do the individual victims of the Spanish Civil War and Francoism hold in Spain’s collective memory? Or, rather, what place does Faber believe they should hold?
Do you think ‘pacts of forgetting’ are necessary for moving beyond trauma, or do they inhibit the formation of a “just memory?
On Wednesday… watch the Silence of Others (found on Course Schedule )
Wednesday 3/17
Discussion of Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory:
Thoughts on The Silence of Others:
- The film explores what justice could look like, especially internationally, despite the Spanish Amnesty Law of 1977.
- explores the potential of universal jurisdiction and international trials for crimes against humanities (international humanist narrative)
- gave a personal testimony for a larger historical debate, making history personal
generational amnesia – younger people were not taught this history, older people often choose to forget
- explores the meaning of justice – is it revenge? is it being able to see your loved ones again? is it getting answers? is it restorative?
- the need for truth and reconciliation – Cambodia, Rwanda, etc.
- solidarity between victims who had similar emotional experiences
- the continuation for Francoist beliefs
- what about street signs and monuments?
- leaving them up is a continued threat to the victims
- remembering vs. memorializing
- Memorials: miridor de la memoria vs. the valley of the fallen
- Miridor de la memoria is far more modest than the valley of the fallen
Peter’s primary source presentation
- International memory of the Spanish Civil War through the perspective of British antifascist, Johnny Longstaff and his archives interviews
- International perspective was often limited to ideological dimension, not specific regional or religious contexts.
- View the archives here
Next week…
- Denial of the Holocaust and Deborah Lipstadt